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Final Major Project Task 1

For my final major project, I will have to explore techniques and programmes that I have no used before if I want to show variety in my animation abilities. I have come up with a few different ideas for what I could do for my FMP:

Create a painting and then it coming to life to tell a stop animation story

My final decision is to create a 3D toy coming to life and exploring real life but with obstacles such as pets, stairs and nature, but ending up with the toy discovering it’s creator. Programmes that I will be using for this final major project with be After Effects 2017, Premiere Pro 2017 and Maya.

The toy that I am basing my toy off will be a custom Funko Pop! Vinyl version of myself, the figure will appear to have short hair, circular black eyes (that will change shape throughout the animation) and a matching outfit to the creator. This will be mean creating the figure both digitally and physically to make references about how big the figure should be in certain shots as well as seeing how the light weight would react in environments such as falling and certain weather conditions. I will look at a range of company made figures as well as custom figures that the public have made, that way I can get a few innovative ideas about the creation process as well as what materials work well and what don’t.

Similar to shows such as Scooby Doo, LazyTown and Star Wars I will have to practice to react to objects that are not there but yet still making it believable when people watch the final animation. For inspiration I will look at the behind the scenes of movies, tv shows and books to get an idea of different live action tips (as well as 3D animation). Techniques such as lighting will be key as I don’t want the figure to appear that it doesn’t belong in the environment, a good example of this is the short film ‘Pokemon – A Great Journey’.

After reading though 3D SHORT FILM PRODUCTION by Jeremy Cantor and Pepe Valencia, it proved that making a physical copy of the character would be a wise idea “A physical sculpture will allow you to visualize a future digital model and will help you work out its proportions and details”. I will produce both a physical and digital copy of the figure, when making it digitally I will have to figure out the boundaries of the movement as well as converting the animation from Maya to After Effects, this will be done by browsing through books and online tutorials.

Additionally I will look at how the official Funko animation look and how they express facial expressions without using mouths or speech.